I was given more spray paint for Christmas from my family gift exchange. So exciting, look at these colors!

My proposal:

I have been an artist my entire life but sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time. I ask myself why is it so hard for artists to make a living making art? Artists are without a doubt undervalued in our society. This is the same society that pays NFL athletes an average yearly salary of 1.9 million. These facts curtail the development of some artists. Without the market to sell their work artists stop striving to innovate and literally stop creating new work.

I aspire to create public art as architectural glass installed in buildings to inspire and enhance the lives of many. To achieve such a lofty goal first I need to work through many ideas and create a lot of work. Secondly I need to get this work seen by the public.

I am proposing to make art and give it all away for free. I’ll be working on Dur-a-lar or acetate with liquid acrylics, acrylic inks and spray paint to make pieces that when hung on a window look different depending on lighting. They also look different whether they are viewed from the front or back. After I make the work I’ll share it on social media and then hide it in public places for people to find. If you find it it’s yours and you can keep it or pass it on. Using the hash tag #ifoundfreeart on Instagram people can share where they found it and where it will be displayed. I’m proposing this project to demonstrate the power of art to inspire, enhance lives and build community.

That’s what I wrote and now I’m in the process of making the work. Next will be the fun part of giving it away. I still have to work out how that will actually play out.

In January or February I started with some small experiments. I used pours something I know, along with hand made stencils and some found objects used as stencils. I work on separate layers of clear acetate and frosted Duralar so things can be moved around until something works. All the while I’m holding them up to allow light come through them like stain glass. To photograph them I either tape them to the window or put them on my light box. I started posting them almost every day on Instagram as a way to push myself to work even if I only have a half hour. It’s amazing what is happening here. I have a whole new visual language developing. Here are some of them and some process shots as well.

It’s a translucent surface that’s similar to Mylar. I’m working on both sides and really playing with all different ways of applying and removing paint. I’ve poured the paint, spray painted with and without stencils. I’ve used a brush to apply paint and then when it’s dry scratched a drawing into it.

I photographed these pieces against a wall first and then taped to my window with light shining through. I can’t even believe how different they look and the idea intrigues me. They could be framed in layers of glass or Plexiglas and hung in a window. They would look one way during the day and completly different at night. Light is a really powerful medium and something we take for granted.

I find graffiti to be beautiful. Yes, it’s true it’s technically vandalism but the results of many people spraying in one place over and over creates a beautiful layered abstract painting. To understand one’s motivation to tag a surface, I guess we could actually go all the back to the cave paintings. Humans have an inherent desire to leave their mark, or express themselves with mark making. Is graffiti a way of communicating? Maybe it’s the bright colors that I enjoy which are usually set in contrast with old, rusty dirty surfaces in urban environments. It can also be found in natural environments and has a primitive feel to it. Graffiti has historically inspired contemporary artists and designers and continues to do so.

Here’s some graffiti that has caught my eye. When I choose where to crop it then I have a hand in the end product which in this case is my photograph.